NGOs: Shaping International Policy

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NGOs Shaping International Policy

• Presented by
• Leah J. Maurer

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Globalization has created a climate in which
NGOs are needed to play a major role in
international policy.
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Overview

• What is Globalization?
• What type of climate has Globalization created?
• What are the impacts of Globalization?
• The need for International Organizations
• The need for Non-governmental Organizations
• NGOs Helping International Organizations
• NGO Participation in International Policy
• International Organizations Efforts
• Overall Goal

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What is Globalization?

• Globalization Index (A.T. Kearney)
• Examines personal contact across nation boarders
• Charts World Wide Web usage
• Analyzes economic integration
• Tracks movement of goods and services
• Measures the permeability of boarders
• Tracks movement of money across borders

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Globalization Climate

• Technology Driven
• Electronic communication
• Declining transport costs
• Mobile assets (finance knowledge)
• Services stages of production across national
  boarders
• Integrated markets
• Job and investment decisions internationalized

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Impacts of Globalization

• Rising Inequality
• Great rewards for those well-endowed
• Increasing pressures on those less well-endowed
• Exclusion
• Insecurity

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The Need for International Orgs

• Globalization has created a new playing field
• Global organizations can facilitate by developing
  flexible networks and alliances across national
  boundaries

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The Need for NGOs

• Establishment of International Organizations
• Economic, social, and political trends
• Changes in roles, relationships, capacity, and
  accountability
• Implication for policy and practice

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NGOs Helping International Orgs

• Setting agendas
• Negotiating outcomes
• Conferring legitimacy
• Implementing solutions
• Policing agreements

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NGO Participation in Intl Policy

• Include
• Frustrate decision making
• More complete information
• Gain support/buy-in

• Limit
• Narrowing the field fairly is difficult
• Conflicting information
• Create enemies

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International Orgs Efforts

• Create tiers of status (ECOSOC)
• Formal voting rights (ILO)
• Disseminate detailed unrestricted info (WB)
• Survey, advisory groups, public meetings, private
  meetings with staff (WB)
• Delegates, representatives, consultants
• Regular contact with Secretariat or Director
  General
• Participation at conferences as observers or
  speakers

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Overall Goal

• Develop systems of public participation that
  include NGO expertise, resources, grassroots
  connection, dedication, resolution, and lack of
  bureaucratic constraints
• Think transformational not transactional
• Understand and accept conflict of interest--it is
  the root of democracy

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Thank You